“It was a pile of metal in front of a building,” said Cohoes Fire Chief Joseph Fahd.

Three firefighters suffered minor injuries. No one else was hurt. The fire was under control after about three hours. Fahd said the scrap pile is believed to have contained propane tanks and other fuel containers as there were a number of explosions.

The fire damaged an add-on to one of the facility’s buildings, said Mayor Shawn Morse. It will need to be repaired, he said, adding city engineers met with NH Kelman personnel after the fire to discuss the rebuilding process.

Morse, who’d been a city firefighter for 27 years, said there have been fires at the Kelman scrap yard before, but nothing on this scale.

“It certainly was a big fire, very hot, very dangerous,” he said.

What caused the fire isn’t clear, however the Department of Environmental Conservation was on scene and will be investigating, Fahd said.

The preliminary investigation found nothing suspicious about the fire, Morse said.

In addition to fire departments from the local area, firefighters from Albany International Airport were summoned to spray foam on the blaze.

Neighbors ended up evacuated, but the fire was contained to the scrapyard.

Fahd said firefighters tackled the fire in shifts because of the naturally high temperature that day.